It had been a long day in the engine room of Serenity for Kaylee Frye. Ever since the Firefly class ship had returned to the air after its destructive crash landing during the battle above Mr. Universe's moon, Serenity had been very needy for Kaylee's constant attention. It was awful nice of those purple bellies to give them help in repairing the ship but they didn't know one gorram thing about how to care for a ship. For all their fancy parts and shiny tools, they didn't care one mite about the soul of the ship and how to keep it happy. They couldn't hear the music Serenity made.

It was during long days like this where she'd have lots of time by herself in the engine room that Kaylee would have plenty of time alone to think about stuff. Sometimes her thoughts would be preoccupied with stuff like what they'd have for dinner that night, something shiny she'd like to buy for herself when she gets her pay, how cute Simon looked that day and other trivial thoughts. But often her thoughts would drift to Mal and their past together. And that's what her thoughts were focused on this night.

Kaylee stopped her work for a moment and mopped off her brow with a greasy hand, leaving behind a large smudge on her forehead, and took some time to concentrate fully on her memories. It had started just after she'd come aboard the ship when she'd spend nights up late by herself, crying and homesick, having never been away from home before, let alone traveling the galaxy with no one she knew. The captain walked in on her one night and stayed up the rest of the night with her while she sobbed. He kept that up for nearly a fortnight, forgoing his own sleep to stay up with his mechanic and make sure she adjusted smoothly to the black.

Eventually Kaylee settled into life onboard Serenity and started to enjoy herself a lot more. But she was always thankful to Mal for what he did for her, not just giving her a job but also being friendly to her when she needed a friend more than ever before in her life. And one night she decided